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A preview is a brief statement of the main points you will be developing in the body of your speech. It lets your audience members know what main ideas to expect and helps them visualize the structure of your speech—the sequence of ideas you’ll present. Your preview should consist of no more than one sentence per main point.

To differentiate the main points in your preview, include signposts (for example, first, next, and finally) to help your audience grasp the structure of your speech. Also, avoid the use of and or other connecting words while previewing a single main point.

Consider the following two previews that Alexandra might use in her speech about judging competitive ice skating:

WEAKER PREVIEW

The rules of judging and the ways you can judge, along with the many controversies about Olympic judges, are all interesting aspects of judging competitive skating.

STRONGER PREVIEW

Today we’ll look at three major topics about judging competitive ice skating: first, we’ll look at rules for judging the event, followed by tips you can use to score the performances yourself, and finally, controversies in the judging at past Olympics.

Both of these previews offer information about the main points to be developed. However, the first preview is much less explicit. It mentions the three points Alexandra plans to cover, but it runs them together in a single clause. Thus, it doesn’t help the audience understand the structure of the speech. This preview also contains no hints indicating that Alexandra is previewing her main points. This statement could just as easily be an attempt to connect with the audience. By contrast, the strong second preview signals the speech structure clearly, making it easy for Alexandra’s audience to recognize exactly what the main points will be and in what sequence she will cover them.